Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Easter Vigil and celebration is already in sight, and this is a wonderful opportunity for us to have an experience of the resurrection. In order to do that it is crucial that we clearly see the deaths, the sufferings that encircle us today. For how can we celebrate the resurrection if we don’t know our slavery, our inability to love or to overcome an anxiety or family problem or some addiction? Hopefully these weeks of Lent have made it possible for you to see your weaknesses, your poverty, and your need for God’s help. This will help you to come to the Easter celebration singing, ‘Oh happy fault, that has given us such a great Savior.’ This is part of the Exultet what will be sung at the Easter Vigil; ‘happy fault’ refers to the sin of Adam and Eve and the promise God made to send us a Savior.
The gospel this week helps us to enter Easter without moralisms, without thinking that I have to arrive with many good deeds in my hands, many days of fasting, always loving and forgiving, no, no, no. Christ will act despite our sins and not because we deserve anything. We cannot earn the resurrection by being good. So, if you have not done anything yet this Lent, don’t worry.
What is important for these last two weeks is to see our deaths, our incapacity to be a Christian, to see our reality. To experience God’s love despite our pride and constant preoccupation with ourselves. Actually, it is a great gift to see the truth about ourselves and to ask, to beg for his help, so we have an experience of the resurrection this Easter. He doesn’t force this on us; we need to ask for it.
When Lazarus was sick and died Jesus only arrived four days after his death, and seemingly on purpose. His body was already decomposing and there was no doubt that he was dead. Why did he come so late? It can only be that Jesus wanted to give glory to his Father by raising Lazarus from this impossible situation. And he can do the same with us. To be a Christian means to know deeply that my mission is to give glory to God, not to myself. How many people in sports or entertainment are working non-stop to give glory to themselves? A Christian gives glory to God!
Jesus came not to judge but to save all and he does this by loving you. No one can love you in this way. It is not possible for your spouse or your kids or me to love you unconditionally as God loves you. Hopefully, you see this Lent that despite who we are God’s love is eternal. He doesn’t judge us, he doesn’t think that he is better than us, he understands all, even those who killed his Son. He excuses all.
God is love and his glory will be seen and lived this Easter. His glory is to love you and to give you an experience of Easter when he will make you a new man or a new woman. Therefore, it is fundamental to see what slavery are you in now, what is your Egypt that he comes to free you from? How is he going to lead you to the Promised Land this Easter. It is not to recall what he did last year or 3,000 years ago, but to experience it yourself this Easter. He wants to make of you a man or woman who loves as He loves. There are empty niches in many churches, and he wants to put an image of you there one day. He is calling you to be holy, which doesn’t mean to be perfect but to know who you are and to see how God is transforming you to be another Christ.
The grain of wheat has to die in order to bear fruit. What is the grain of wheat or better yet, who is the grain of wheat? It is Jesus Christ. He falls to the earth. He is the seed that will be sown here to a planet that seems abandoned and that the Father wants to make it fruitful. What land will he use? You and me! Our Lord is the see that wants to die in you. He wants you to know that you are a man/woman in need that there is a lot of fertilizer in you that will help to produce much fruit. The fruit is your salvation, your witness to the world of the love of God, your joy in the midst of suffering.
The Greeks want to see Jesus. They will find him on the cross and through this he will draw all men to themselves. In the world people suffer and they don’t know why. We have been enlightened hopefully to see that it is our sins that make us suffer. They and we have looked or still look for life in all the wrong things, alcohol, drugs, pornography. By trying to gain life in this way, they lose it. But if you lose your life, you will gain it. You have the mission to carry the other one: your spouse or your kids or your friends or the one in need. This is what gives you life; it fills you with joy. This is how we are made.
In every Eucharist we can experience an Easter, a rising from sadness or loneliness or whatever. Christ passes by in every Mass to take us out of slavery to money, vanity, our plans. Many think it is better to live with someone rather than marry them and form a family. They are trying to gain their life but in the end they lose it.
God has infinite patience with us. He always loves us, understands us, not in a moralistic way, meaning he loves us only if we are good. The only problem we have is to miss this experience of his love. He will do all he can to make you a saint, to put you in that niche in that church around the corner, one day.